In 2025, fire departments serving Cut Off responded to 48 fire and hazmat incidents — from cooking fires to gas leaks to a single $125K building blaze. Here's the full picture.
Building fires lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 58% of all calls.
Sep peaks. Nov dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
260 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2024. $944K cumulative property loss. 1 civilian deaths.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 38 | — | |
| 2022* | 18 | — | |
| 2023 | 77 | — | |
| 2024 | 79 | +2.6% | |
| 2025 | 48 | -39.2% |
* Well below Cut Off's usual volume. That almost always means one or more departments didn't submit a full year to NFIRS, not that fires dropped, so no year-over-year change is shown for it.
For the 7 building fires Cut Off departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 76 building fires investigators classified across 2021–2025. The room or location where ignition occurred — kitchens, bedrooms, exterior, vehicle areas — tells you where to focus prevention.
| # | Area of origin | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 22 | 28.9% | |
| 2 | Open area - outside; included are farmland, field | 16 | 21.1% | |
| 3 | Cooking area, kitchen | 9 | 11.8% | |
| 4 | Outside area, other | 6 | 7.9% | |
| 5 | Vehicle area, other | 5 | 6.6% | |
| 6 | Engine area, running gear, wheel area | 3 | 3.9% | |
| 7 | Wildland, woods | 3 | 3.9% | |
| 8 | Laundry area, wash house (laundry) | 2 | 2.6% | |
| 9 | Vehicle storage area; garage, carport | 2 | 2.6% | |
| 10 | Attic: vacant, crawl space above top story, cupola | 2 | 2.6% | |
| 11 | All other areas | 6 | 7.9% |
NFIRS Heat Source (HEAT_SOURC) — the physical thing that started it. Spark or ember from operating equipment, an open flame, smoking materials, or hot embers from a fireplace are the leading culprits nationwide. Here's the Cut Off mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 42 | 55.3% | |
| 2 | Heat from powered equipment, other | 7 | 9.2% | |
| 3 | Cigarette lighter | 5 | 6.6% | |
| 4 | Heat from direct flame, convection currents | 4 | 5.3% | |
| 5 | Heat source: other | 3 | 3.9% | |
| 6 | Heat from other open flame or smoking materials | 3 | 3.9% | |
| 7 | Arcing | 2 | 2.6% | |
| 8 | Match | 2 | 2.6% | |
| 9 | Flame/torch used for lighting | 2 | 2.6% | |
| 10 | Spark, ember or flame from operating equipment | 1 | 1.3% | |
| 11 | All other sources | 5 | 6.6% |
Largest single-incident property losses reported by Cut Off departments in 2025. These 8 fires alone account for 100% of the city's annual total.
| # | Property loss | Type | Severity | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $125,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 2 | $115,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 3 | $80,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 4 | $60,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 5 | $15,000 | Passenger vehicle fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 6 | $10,000 | Building fires | Significant | Investigated |
| 7 | $7,000 | Outside equipment fire | Significant | Investigated |
| 8 | $1,500 | Brush, or brush and grass mixture fire | Significant | Investigated |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Cut Off sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
5 fire-related casualties recorded in NFIRS Module 11 across the 2021–2025 window. Age, gender, and severity are coarse-binned — no individual identification possible.
| Age | Count | |
|---|---|---|
| 0-9 | 0 | |
| 10-19 | 0 | |
| 20-29 | 0 | |
| 30-39 | 3 | |
| 40-49 | 0 | |
| 50-59 | 0 | |
| 60-69 | 0 | |
| 70-79 | 0 | |
| 80+ | 0 |
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 4,711 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Natural | 1,500 | 46.3 mi | |
| 2010 | Natural | 893 | 35.1 mi | |
| 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 614 | 27.4 mi | |
| 2018 | Natural | 303 | 49.7 mi | |
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 220 | 49.2 mi | |
| 2012 | Natural | 166 | 49.5 mi | |
| 2000 | Debris and open burning | 125 | 46.3 mi | |
| 1994 | Arson/incendiarism | 75 | 48.0 mi | |
| 2002 | Arson/incendiarism | 70 | 42.2 mi | |
| 1993 | Arson/incendiarism | 69 | 49.4 mi | |
| 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 60 | 49.5 mi | |
| 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 60 | 45.8 mi |
Top 3 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
Six Louisiana cities with population within ±25% of Cut Off. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
A 30-minute weekend can cut your home's exposure substantially. These four checklists are a good starting point.
Numbers reflect incidents reported by participating fire departments to the National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) Public Data Release for calendar year 2025. NFIRS is voluntary — about 23,000 of roughly 30,000 US fire departments report — so totals are a strong indicator, not a complete census. Per-capita comparisons use 2023 ACS population estimates. Wildland fire data complements NFIRS with NIFC and USFS perimeters. Active-fire counts come from a dated NIFC snapshot, not a live feed.